Iran's president says Tehran will begin enriching uranium to 'any amount we want' next week

(Image credit: Vyacheslav Oseledko / Getty Images)

published 3 July 2019

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Iran will enrich uranium above the 3.67 percent level agreed to in a multinational nuclear pact beginning Sunday if its European partners don't step up with a deal to work around punishing U.S. sanctions. "In any amount that we want, any amount that is required, we will take over 3.67," Rouhani said in a televised Cabinet meeting. On Monday, Iran and United Nations nuclear monitors confirmed that Tehran had enriched more than the 660 pounds of uranium allowed in the nuclear deal.

Iran's enriching of more uranium at higher potency would decrease the window of time it would take to create a nuclear weapon, something Iran denies it has any intention to do. Currently, Iran's window is about a year. On Tuesday, European nations urged Iran to "reverse this step and to refrain from further measures that undermine the nuclear deal." President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran deal and has been working to undermine it, arguing that it did not do enough to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.